St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-05-02
GOD FOIsGlV ES
But Does Not Lose sight of Guilt
Sermon by Rev. Gates.


At the Central Baptist church, last night,
Rev. Fred T. Gates preached upon the
theme of sin, in the light of Gods counte-
nance taking as his text, Thou hast set
our inOuities before Thee; our secret sins
in the light of Thy countenance." Psalms,
Xc., S. The following is brief summary
OF the points made in the discourse:
The teaching of the text is that God is ever
holding before Him, and contemplating the
guilt of unpardoned sinners. Gods love for
impenitent sinners does not turn his eye for
instant from their guilt. Gods love is
not indulgent good nature, not pleasure in
any supposed good in US. 1t is a holy love-;
II passionate desire TO make us blessed by
making us holy. Our unrepented sins thwart
the purposes of that love. They are, there
tore, thornS thrust into the very apple of
His eye. Gods love is the nerve that feels
our guilt; the pen which records it; the fair
white page that it blots. His love directs His
eyes not away from, but towards our guilt.
God arrays before Him all the sins of every
impenitent man and holds them ever in His
eye. God knows and observes us as indi-
vidualS, records our members in His book,
numbers the hairs of our heads. The eyes
OF the Lord are in every place. He has an
eye for every man. Like the prisoner con-
demned TO be watched forever by an invisible
eye the sinner is ever beneath the calm, I'M
deviating gaze of the unseen eye of God
perfect bookkeeper of our lives. No sin
escapes His eye or fails of record. He notes
the uttermoSt farthng of transgreSSion or
failure. He is the steward, the treasurer of
every mans sins, treasuring up wrath against
the day of wrath. He holds the impenitent
sinner under precisely the same law that He
sets over the Christian. He demands that the
sinner shall become Christian and holds
him responsible for his failure to do all that
he requires of the Christian. What would
you think of the reasoning of horse thief,
who should say that he should not be judged
py the laws of honesty because he never pre-
tended to be honest. You will be judged by
the law that Jesus Christ lived by. Think
over your sins of omission, of commission,
secret sins, open sins, every one OF them Is
recorded in the looks on high.
God records our sins that they may be now
and constantly under His eye. We forget
them; He holds them in present conscious
thought. All our past sins are as present TO
Him as if they were to-day committed. God
takes a near view of our sins. Things dimin-
ish in size by distance. God views
our sins with microscopic vividness.
God contemplates not only the facts
of our sin, but the guilt of them. Every
thing depends on the light in which we view
things. God views our sins in the light OF his
own countenance. The light of Gods
counteuance is His revelation of Himself to
US God views our sins in the light of His
law revealed in our conscience, and thus con-
templates the guilt of them. He views our
sins in the light of His word given us, and
thus again contemplates their added guilt.
He views our sins in the light of His bou T.
ties and favors bestowed, such as life, pre-
servaton, temporal blessings bountifully
given, and thus contemplates their deeper
guilt. He views our sins in the light OF the
life and death of Jesus, in the light of all His
offers of pardon and profecs of grace and
blessedness, and thus contemplates their
greatly aggravated guilt. God contemplates
our sins in the light of the majesty glory and
holiness of His own character, and thus con-
templates their infinite, unmeasured
and unspeakable guilt. God con-
templates thus every moment the null
tiplied guilt Of our sins in the light of His
eountenance. Why does God thus hold
ever before Him the guilt of impenitent SIN
ners? He can't help it. That guilt Is ever
thwarting His love, wounding His love. He
can't help it, because if He contemplates the
sinner at all he must contemplate his sin.
since His whole impenitent life is sin, and
nothing but sin. God contemplates our sin,
moreover, in order properly to deal with us
IN this present life. Any governance or
guidance of the sinner that is wise or even
gracious must ever hold in view the exact
amount and degree Of his guilt. God must
keep this exact record of our guilt
in order to vindicate Himself on the day of
judgment. He has purposed then to stop
every mouth. He'll will be eternal silence.
In view OF these truths consider Gods for
bearance in not sooner cutting off your day
of grace. Tempt Him not by preSuning on
further forbearance. Consider the wondrous
love and grace of God in Offering you pardon
while His eye rests on your unmeasured guilt.
Consider His rich promises to those who re-
peut. God will remove your sins as far from
you as the East is from the West, He will blot
them out as thick cloud, He will put them
behind His back, He will wash you white as
snow. Every refusal to repent is solemn
deliberate reafirmation Of every sin you ever
committed.